Title: Demon Child

Author: Miasen

Pairing: Angel/Erika (OC)

Rating: M

Disclaimer: I only own Erika, and don't make any money of my stories.

Spoilers: There might be a few for all of the movies throughout this story, but no major ones.

A/N: This takes place sometime after X3. The cure proved to be a failure, only working temporarily, so it was abandoned, and are no longer manufactured. There is no known way to cure being a mutant.

Chapter one

Erika woke with a scream in the middle of the night and bolted upright in bed. Her heart was beating a hurried beat and she was drenched in sweat. Her legs were tangled in the sheets and her pillow lay on the floor. She clutched her chest, trying to calm herself. Under her breath she muttered:

"Just a bad dream, just a bad dream."

It wasn't the first time Erika had had this dream. It came to her the first time a year ago, and it kept returning. First once a month, then once a week, and then every other day. It was exactly the same every single time

She was walking outside in the sunshine when a black shadow swept by above. She would crane her neck to see it, but it was nowhere to be seen. Then she would hear small sounds from behind. Branches cracking, heavy breath. She would twirl around, but the sound was always behind her, no matter how fast she twirled. Soon the meadow she was standing on seemed to darken. Black trees without branches, only the massive trunks, would sprout from the ground all around her, trapping her in a prison with no way out. She ran about, hitting on the trunks, crying for help, but there was no way out, nowhere she could go. When she then fell silent she would hear a small voice from behind. "There's nothing you can do, NOTHING!" Then she felt sharp pains in her back. Like fangs slashing trough her skin, tearing her flesh, breaking her spine.

This was the moment she woke every single time. Erika had never been one to remember her dreams, they always seemed to slip from her mind as soon as she woke, but not this dream. She remembered every sound, every sight, and every smell. She remembered the fear she felt and the horrible pains. As soon as she caught her breath she would lift her hands to her back, afraid of what she would find, but it was always as it had always been. Not a single cut in the skin, just a small throbbing.

This time was not different. She lifted her hands and let them feel her back. The skin was sleek with sweat, and her fingers slid over the skin, finding it as always. She dropped her hands to the bed and used them to push her off. She grabbed the sheet from the floor, wrapped it around herself and stumbled over to the door, heading for the bathroom. She had to stop to put a hand to her forehead. Her head was throbbing painfully. She drew her breath and pushed open the door. Not a sound could be heard from the door on the other side of the hall. Her sister was obviously sleeping, so Erika walked silently on her toes so not to wake her.

When she reached the bathroom she switched on the lights and walked over to the sink. She turned the tap, letting the cool water splash into the sink, before she looked up into the mirror. Her eyes widened in shock. Over her forehead she saw a streak of bright red. She looked down on her hands, they were covered in red as well. She looked at them for a minute in disbelief, and then she turned and ran to her room. When she turned on the light she almost screamed, but managed to stifle it.

Her bed was soaked in blood. The sheets were ripped in several places were her back had rested before. Erika backed away slowly and ran back to the bathroom. She turned off the tap that was still running and jumped in the shower, turning the taps to an almost scalding heat. She walked under the stream and scrubbed her hands. The water mixed with the blood and swirled towards the drain. She turned her back towards the stream and watched how the slightly red water became bright red before disappearing towards the drain. Her back must've been covered in blood. As she thought of the bloody bed she wasn't surprised. Her heart was still beating fast in her chest, she was afraid. She couldn't understand where the blood came from.

When the water grew cold she stepped out of the shower and pulled a towel around her shivering body. She walked back to the bedroom slowly. No one seemed to have woken from her running and showering. She heard small snores from her sister's bedroom when she stopped outside the door and laid her ear against it. When she looked back into her room she had to bite down on her lip to keep from bursting out in tears. She slowly approached the bed and pulled of the ruined sheets. The mattress was slightly torn, and the blood had stained trough it. She threw her towel on top to try to soak up some of the blood and went to put on some clothes.

When she stepped back to the bed the towel was soaked trough as well. She balled it up together with the sheet and threw it in the trashcan. The mattress she flipped upside down. The other side was free from blood and rips. She pulled on a clean sheet, hiding any evidence of the night's occurrences. She didn't want her mom to worry. Her nerves were fragile enough as it was. Erika curled up in the armchair that stood on the other side of the room and stared at the bed. She didn't want to go back to sleep, and definitively not in that bed. Her legs were pulled up to her chest, and her arms thrown around them. Her chin rested on her knees. She could feel the tears threatening to come forth once again, and pinched the skin on the back of her left hand to keep them at bay. She was rocking slightly back and forth, trying to sooth herself. Images from the dream kept popping forth, and now they were mixed in red and tainted with the iron like smell of blood.

After a while she felt her eyelids growing heavy, and felt sleep closing when she noticed something wrong. Suddenly she was wide-awake again. She heard a small crack, like a branch breaking, followed by feeling warmth issuing trough her spine. Soon more small cracks followed, and she froze. It was as if her very spine was shifting, but she felt no pain. Just as she released her hold on her knees to feel her back the pain hit her. Sharp stabs of pain raced trough her spine, accompanying a new series of cracks, louder this time. It was as if someone was crushing her spine. She tried to scream, but her vocal cords wouldn't work, and all she could come up with was a small groan. Then the pains stopped abruptly for a few second, before a new wave hit her. It was the familiar pain, like claws digging at her back, a pain she had felt in her dreams so many times before, but this time it was for real. She fell to the floor, and landed on her knees and hands. Her back arched from the pains. Suddenly it felt as if her entire back exploded, and she felt blood spatter her back and arms. A small river of the warm liquid made its way down her forehead where it took a path down her nose. It clung to the tip for a mere second before it dropped to the floor. She grinded her teeth together, trying to endure the pain. Her back arched once more as it felt like her spine was ripped from her body, and then all of a sudden the pain was gone.

She collapsed on the floor. Sweat and blood mixing and pooling around her body. She lay still, panting, for several minutes before being able to rise to her feet. Her entire body was shaking, and her knees threatened to buckle beneath her, but she managed to keep standing. She dragged her feet to the wall and used one arm to lean against it. The other one she lifted to feel her back. She imagined finding it as always, smooth and unscarred, but this time she didn't. When her hands reached her shoulder blades they hit something. Rough live tissue beneath her hands. Her eyes widened and she pulled the hand away.

She staggered towards the bathroom and froze when she saw herself in the mirror. Her body was sprayed with blood all over her pale white skin, and behind her back she saw the most grotesque sight she had ever seen. A black pair of wings, similar to those of a bat protruded from her back. On the joints long, slightly curved, spikes that shone faintly in the light were visible. They looked like weapons. Out of pure instinct she moved muscles in her back she had never had before and the wings flapped slowly. She back stepped slowly, hand clasped to her mouth in horror. She stopped when her back hit the wall in the hallway. She couldn't seem to take her eyes from the sight in the mirror.

She snapped her head to the left when she heard a small noise. She saw her little sister standing there, fluffy bunny slippers on her feet, too large pyjamas that threatened to fall of her petite body. Her eyes were wide in terror, and Erika saw them watering up.

"MOM!" Her little voice sounded shrill in Erika's ears, and she tried too calm her little sister. She walked towards her, begging her too keep silent, but her little sister she had loved so much for all of her life, her little Fiona, seemed terrified of her. Suddenly a door snapped open and her mother peeked out the door. She was about to open her mouth and speak when she saw her little girl Fiona standing in the middle of the hallway with a terrified look in her eyes, and in front of her a monster, a demon, but in the form of her other daughter. She reacted at once, rushing forward to grab Fiona and then backing away from the demon, shielding her daughter behind her. Fiona grabbed hold of her mothers robe and hid behind it.

"Stay away from us you, you DEMON!" Erika wanted to explain to her mother, but didn't know how. She didn't know why this had happened to her, but her fear where much those of her mother. She had never been very religious, but now she feared something very wrong was happening to her. She took one last look at her mother's disgusted and frightened face, turned her back to them and ran. She almost fell down the stairs, but managed to keep on her feet. As she reached the front door she had to halt in order to open the lock, but as soon it was open, she burst trough the doors and ran towards the darkness of the forest. Behind her the door slowly creaked back on its hinges and closed.